A conservative adheres to principles of limited government, personal responsibility and moral values, agreeing with George Washington's Farewell Address that "religion and morality are indispensable supports" to political prosperity.[1][2]
Specifically, conservatives seek or support:
- Classroom prayer
- Prohibition of abortion
- Traditional marriage, not same-sex marriage
- Respect for differences between men and women, boys and girls
- Laws against pornography
- The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms
- Economic allocative efficiency (as opposed to popular equity)
- The death penalty
- Parental control of education
- Private medical care and retirement plans
- Canceling failed social support programs
- No world government
- Enforcement of current laws regarding immigration
- Respect for our military ... past and present
- Rejection of junk science such as evolutionism and global warming
- Low taxes, especially for families
- Federalism (less power for the federal government and more for local and state governments)
- A strong national defense
Periodically a conservative has been elected president of the United States. In the last 125 years the most prominent conservative presidents include:
- Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897)
- William McKinley (1897-1901)
- William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
- Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
- Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
- Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
- George W. Bush (2001-2009) (with respect to taxes, Supreme Court nominations, and national security)
The most prominent conservative Congresses have been:
- The 80th Congress (elected in 1946)
- The 104th Congress (elected in 1994)
Movement conservatives are those who accept the logic of conservatism across-the-board, and stand up for its powerful principles despite liberal hatred and baseless ridicule. Movement conservative thinkers include:
Partial conservatives include:
- Barry Goldwater - 1964 Republican candidate, lost to liberal Democrat Lyndon Johnson but revived the conservative movement inside the GOP
- Russell Kirk - Theorist & intellectual
- Irving and William Kristol - Notable neoconservatives
- Margaret Thatcher - British prime minister between 1979 and 1990, held similar views as Ronald Reagan
- Milton Friedman - Chicago-school libertarian economist, influential during Reagan administration; leader of the Chicago School of Economics
No comments:
Post a Comment